Back from MICF tomorrow

Here are just some of the shows I’ve seen in the last week at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

I got a good day’s rest yesterday (most performers don’t do Monday shows, so it’s a chance for everybody to catch a breath), but I’ve got another 4-5 shows to see today! You can read my reviews over at my comedy website Gagging For It if you’re interested in catching some of the shows.

Chally, Hannah’s show this year is superb. She will almost certainly be nominated for a festival award, but the competition is strong so she might not win.
Other great women in the festival who I’ll wait to see in Sydney: DeAnne Smith reportedly has the dirtiest show in the festival (but everybody forgives her), Celia Pacquola’s show is getting very good crits, and there’s great word of mouth on Fiona O’Loughlin doing something very different. Made a point of seeing in Melbourne – Denise Scott was a delight.
In smaller venues around the festival – Geraldine Hickey has a beautifully structured coming-out show that made me laugh lots and cry a bit, young Melbourne comic actor Tegan Higginbotham is getting rave reviews for her solo show (which I couldn’t squeeze in – boo hoo) – I did see her in the ensemble show Shakespeare Fight Club, which was tremendous fun. Sydney comic Jennifer Wong has a great show, Melbourne’s Victoria Healy likewise, Sophie Miller has a sweet cabaret show, newcomer Morven Smith has a charmingly open-hearted debut show and I look forward to what she’ll do next year.
As for my favourite bloke’s shows this festival – Carl-Einar Hackner was outright hilarious, Paul Foot was brilliantly alarming (both in disingenuously absurdist shows that belie the cleverness of their structure); John Robertson was disturbingly charming, Greg Behrendt is solidly appealing, Tim Fitzhigham is delightfully manic. I didn’t see Tom Gleeson, Wil Anderson, Stephen K Amos or Mark Watson, but they were all selling out most of their shows. (Did see Tom Gleeson on Stand Up Sit Down interview show, did see Wil Anderson in FanFiction Comedy – enjoyed both).

Aqua, when circus acrobats (male or female) use two poles side by side like that they’ve been called Chinese poles for at least the last century (maybe two). The other apparatus the FFF chaps use is the rope and the straps, which are also venerable circus acrobat equipment.
What I loved most about their performance was the way that they melded circus, vaudeville and cabaret with some rather pointed deconstruction of masculine stereotypes.

I got a bad case of comedy crush on Mark Watson when he tweeted a few weeks ago about how much he hates comedians who do sexist dipshit material. He got some pushback for it, and stood his ground. It was great.